Bears' Urlacher tackles fan, media critics
As Chicago's slide continued Sunday with a home loss to NFC North rival Green Bay, boos rained down on the Bears from frustated fans.
And linebacker Brian Urlacher didn't like it.
The Bears fell to 8-6 with their fifth loss in the past six games and are in danger of missing the playoffs after seemingly being a shoo-in a few weeks ago.
Urlacher, the 34-year-old veteran who is sidelined with a hamstring injury, also took exception with media criticism of coach Lovie Smith.
"Two of the people I don't care about: fans or media," Urlacher told WFLD-TV. "They can say what they want to about our head coach, about our players. It does bother me. They don't know what they're talking about, obviously.
"I know there are a lot of experts in the media, a bunch of smart guys out there who know exactly what they're talking about all the time. They don't know what they're talking about. Lovie is the head coach of this football team and hopefully will be for a long time."
Urlacher has spoken his mind in the past about the fans and media. He again took a shot at the faithful in the Soldier Field stands Sunday after the Bears' 21-13 loss.
"Our crowd was ... loud for a minute there, the boos were really loud, which is always nice," he said. "The only team in our division that gets booed at home is us. It's incredible to me.
"We're going to go out there and play as hard as we can."
Urlacher doesn't expect media questions and the fans' dismay to subside.
"It's not going to change," he said. "If we talk about it, then the media says, 'You're blaming the fans for losing. You're doing this. You're blaming the refs for losing.' We lost that football game. Every football game we play in, we lose, it's nobody's fault but ours, but we're allowed to say what we want."
Urlacher came to Smith's defense amid calls for a coaching change.
"We know when it's time to play," Urlacher said. "We just haven't played well. It's not his fault. He can't go out there and do it for us. We have to do it ourselves."
